Coffee Shop Hair
by fionasquid
Summary: Three months have gone by since they were rescued. Kate slipped from the cops and is now missing. And Jack is missing her. Will they ever see each other again?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One.

The door makes a nasty noice when Jack walks into the coffee shop. He lets it to go back close slowly squeaking. He takes a quick look at the place. One of those old places where people don't usually go to get their take away coffees – they are most likely to stay in the coffee shop for hours just sitting and contemplating the miseries of the human existence.

Jack has his own fair share of them himself but he doesn't have time to think about them. He had to keep his mind occupied so they wouldn't take over his brain.

It had been three months since they were brought back to the soil of USA. Three months since the last time he saw the island they had been on. Three months since they were all scared to death on getting on the airplane that got them home. Three months since she managed to escape. Three months since the last time he saw her. Or heard nothing about her. She hadn't sent a letter nor called nor been in any kind of contact what so ever.

He glances to the girl that is making his double espresso. It would probably taste like crap but at that moment he could've cared less about it. Just as long it had some kinda kick to it and would keep him awake. It's not like he would've been sleeping like a baby lately.

The girl hands the hot cup to Jack and he takes it. He burns his palm when he grabs it and curses the girl quietly. She doesn't seem to be hearing anything and just asks him to give the 3 dollars for the coffee. Jack frowns at her with an angry gaze and tosses the coins to the counter and is heading towards the squeaking door.

After taking a brief look at his watch he decides he has time to stay for a little while longer. He starts scanning the coffee shop for an empty table but ends up having something much more interesting in his sight than a table on which to go thru the mistakes of life. In the back row tables, he sees a curly haired woman sitting and sipping her coffee and going thru some magazine. She has her back to him so he can see her properly but the familiar looking hair makes his mind immediately go flashbacking to the time that they were still on the island.

The first time that they met. How she had been afraid but he had spoken some courage to her and she had eventually sewed his wound up.

When the flashbacks are gone he is left with a tingling feeling in his lips. He just couldn't get that kiss out of his head. The desperate cry-out for help that it had first included and then it had started shifting to something else and then she had broken the kiss. Just when he was trying to get into it after recovering from the surprisement that she was actually kissing him.

He shakes his head slightly in attempt to clear his mind. He walks towards the curly hair and pats the woman's shoulder. She turns her face to him, obviously in great shock but her shock is nothing compared to Jack's.

The face and all that hair belongs to none other than Kate herself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two.

They were both just looking at each other and neither one was saying anything. The panic that had been on Kate's face had drained away and Jack could see her lips curling up into a little smile.

He wasn't returning to the smile. It wasn't something that he could do just yet. He wanted to look at her first – like making sure that she really was there.

She had dark circles under her eyes. Well at least I'm not the only one with sleeping problems, he thought to himself. But besides the baggy eyes, she was glowing. Her brownish curly hair was cascading over her shoulders. It had grown just a little. The sent of the hair had a vanilla touch to it. Usually, he didn't like vanilla but on her he was more than happy to smell it because it gave proof that she was there.

Jack still having his palm slightly on her shoulder, Kate finally decided to say something.

"Jack.."

Her attempt to speak was interrupted when Jack moved his hand from her shoulder to her hair and started stroking it with light movements.

She looked down for a moment and then fixed her eyes to his caressing hands.

"We need to talk."

Jack wasn't hearing her words at first and continued the hair stroking but eventually moved his gaze to her eyes.

There was something strange there. He had no clue what it could've been. It seemed a little like she had actually been missing him.

"But we can't talk here." She continued. "Let's find some place quiet."

Jack was looking at her confused and after an awkward silence had passed, he just shrugged in attempt to let her know that he didn't have any place special in mind.

It looked for a minute that Kate was as out of ideas as he was but then her face lit up and she removed his hand away from her hair.

"I know. Follow me."

She was holding her hand out to him, urging him to grab it which he did. She starts leading him towards the restroom area and Jack realises what she is doing.

He had been to this coffee shop a few times before today and knew that nobody used the toilets. At least, never when he was there. And if he was now reading Kate's actions right, she must know the exact same fact.

Her hand is cold against Jack's but the grip is strong. She slightly tightens her hold to his hand when they enter the restroom.

The moment the door closes and isolates them from the rest of the world, Kate removes her hand away from his. This makes Jack sad but he doesn't object.

Suddenly, Kate steps closer and puts her hands on his chest and looks up to his face waiting for him to fix his eyes to hers. Jack is surprised but eventually manages to return her gaze.

Now he could see it so clearly. There was a huge longing in her eyes and before long, he finds her lips on his mouth. This time there just isn't that desperation that was there when she first had kissed him.

She wasn't doing anything at first – just keeping their lips together. Kate sighs against his mouth. Her palms are still pressed to his chest. He isn't doing anything either. After they have stayed entwined for a moment, he moves his hands lower to her waist line and this is all the encouraging that Kate needs to continue.

They part their lips and start moving them in slow motions. She is doing most of the work but Jack manages to be the fisrt one to put his tongue in. It begins exploring her teeth and lips and Kate makes a barely noticeable moan to his mouth.

She tastes like coffee and strawberries. Well the coffee part there was obvious but where had the strawberry came from?

He pulls away from the kiss just a little bit, still keeping his eyes closed and his mouth close to hers.

"Strawberry?"

She's not looking at his face and starts adding more pressure to his chest and mumbles to his mouth: "Don't speak."

She starts kissing him again and he is happy to obey her and throws the strawberry topic out of the window.

When she noticed that he is getting more into it this time Kate opens her mouth more and deepens the kiss. Jack returns to this by imitating her mouth opening and all of a sudden they are all over each other. Jack moves his hand beneath her black tank top and is stroking the skin of her back.

Kate shivers a little as he does this but she doesn't pull away. She slips her tongue into his mouth and starts doing her own exploring trip. He feels a sudden wobbliness coming to his legs and groans to her mouth silently. Like she wouldn't notice this.

She applies more pressure to his chest and is now pushing him backwards to the direction of the nearest wall. Jack is forced to lean his head more lower so that the kiss wouldn't break. He almost falls down from her pushing power but taking a few clumsy steps he gets his balance back.

When his back finally hits the wall, Kate moves her hands to his neck and deepens the kiss even more. Jack is responding and making a huge effort not to lose control over his legs.

He likes a bossy woman but her dominating is getting a little too much for him. Tightening his grip around her waist he flips their positions.

This sudden turning of the tables came as a surprise to her but she's more than ok with it. Their kiss still hasn't broken and they were both happy for that.

Seeing that the sink counter wasn't that far away, he pushed her against it and Kate pulled her head slightly back. He wasn't sure if she needed to come out for air or did she just want to stop.

"Lift me up," she murmured to his ear and he looked at her. He had tried to take control over the situation but after hearing her demand, he forgot all about the women-don't-boss-me-around thing and obeyed her.

He moved his hands to her armpits and carefully lifted her on the sink counter, gave her one determined look and started kissing her again. Now that their tongues were done exploring the mouths, they had time to meet. Both deepened the kiss and not even trying to silence the moans anymore. Kate wrapped her legs around his waist and Jack was overjoyed by this.

He broke away after a while, panting heavily against her freckled face. He found her eyes and the longing that she had had there was still present but the look of passion and joy had taken over.

"So what did you want to talk about?" he asks closing his eyes and opening them again, his cheek laying on her shoulder.

Kate is stroking his hair with her hand and whispers to his ear: "Who cares?" And puts her own cheek against his head.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three.

"So the talking was just some kind of excuse?" Jack says and makes a gigglish laugh.

"Excuse for what?"

"For getting me all to yourself."

He opens his eyes and moves them to look at her. She has still her eyes closed for some reason but eventually she opens them as well and they just look one another for a second. Both ravished by the fact that they are here, together after being without the other for three months.

Kate takes her gaze away from him and focuses it to the restroom door.

"You think anyone will come in?" Kate asks.

"I've never seen anyone coming in here before so I think we won't be disturbed."

She gives him an amused look and fixes her eyes back to his. Jack has his both hands cupping her face and Kate tilts her head slightly back so that she could see him properly.

Jack moves his face closer to hers. She doesn't do anything and is still looking straight into his eyes. The brief amusement that had been there fades away and Jack brings his lips again to hers.

It took a while until Kate started responding to it. Taking a quiet inhale, she parts her lips and lets him continue. Kate is still sitting on the sink counter and Jack takes a step towards it. She wraps her legs again around his hips.

After making out for a while, Jack opens his mouth wider deepening the kiss and tightens his grip of her. She puts her hands on Jack's shoulders and pulls herself towards him so that their chests are now touching.

When Jack couldn't help himself anymore he moved his palms to her back and started to caress the skin under the shirt. She made a sharp gasp when she felt his cold hand on her bare skin but relaxed after she got used to them.

Kate's fingers met in the back of his neck and Jack started to slide his fingers lower on her back, to her jeans. Suddenly, Kate broke the kiss and looked at him surprised.

She then gave him an encouraging frown and he kissed her again, now with more energy and passion than the last kiss had.

"What on earth is going on?"

An old lady has walked into the lady's restroom and is now staring at their reunion make out.

Jack quickly withdraws himself away from Kate when he hears that someone has walked in on them. He thanks god that they weren't interrupted doing something more intimate than just kissing.

"This is supposed to be ladies only area. And you don't actually look like one. So what is this?"

She looks at Jack and then Kate who clearly was holding a huge guffaw of laugh.

"..well..the men's room is somehow broken so I had to use this one."

Jack was trying to come up with something rational but it was a difficult task having Kate still rubbing his back and the woman giving him judgemental looks.

"I saw a man coming out of the men's room just a while ago."

Of course she had seen thru his lie. What had he expected?

"I'm...we're just gonna go..."

He tries to push Kate's hands away from his face but the objects and lets out a little giggle. Finally he manages to get a hold of them and Kate suffocates the laugher.

Kate hops down from the counter and Jack grabs one of her palms and starts leading her towards the exit.

"I'm so sorry about this. Have a nice rest of the day…" Jack says when they walk pass her.

When they have at last are out of the coffee shop, Kate can't take it anymore and starts laughing hysterically. The point when she starts snorting, Jack can't help himself anymore either and joins the guffaw.

"So where are we going?" Kate asks tears of joy falling from her eyes.

To my place. I live just around the corner." He replies and takes her hand back into his own.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

They walk down the street and Jack is holding Kate around her shoulder and she is pressed close to him. They do this so Kate wouldn't be such an easy target for people's eyes to look at. They both know that she is a fugitive on the lam but lucky for her, the FBI didn't want to end up looking like a big fool for letting her escape so they haven't started spreading posters around with her pictures on them or flashing her face in the ten o'clock news. But she wasn't safe yet. She may never be.

But at the moment she liked to think that she was safe. If nothing else Jack provided that feeling to her. Just having his hand around her upper body made her instantly feel safer.

Jack suddenly pushes her to take the turn to left. Kate jumps away from her relaxed walking and has to make an effort not to fall down. She looks up to his figure fake-angrily.

"I almost lost my balance there," she complains.

He just gives her an amusement look and they continue pacing down the route together until Jack makes another sudden move and stops her.

"Now what?" she says and sees that he is looking at the door to their right.

"I live here, " he informs shifting his gaze from the door back to Kate.

The door leads into an old block of flats. The corridors are empty and their steps echo from the walls as they walk. Although it might seem like a scary place to other people, Kate admired it secretly. Not only has she now Jack all to herself, she enjoys the great architecture of the building. The old walls have beige paint on them and the tenants' doors are all made out of heavy dark wood. The small windows let the light of the setting sun come in and it gives a slightly orange look to the place.

After they have walked two storeys up, Jack stops again. He puts the key into the hole and carefully turns the key in it. The door makes a loud bang-like noise when it opens and Kate is started by it. Jack's mouth curls into a little smile when he notices her reaction but he doesn't say anything.

"Right this way, ma'am," he says smiling and making a gesture with his hands that advices her to go in first.

"Why thank you." She is tries to say this with a sophisticated accent but fails in her attempt and they both end up laughing again. Jack puts one of his palms on her shoulder and the other one on her back encouraging her to go in.

"So this is where the mighty doctor lives?" she says stepping into the flat.

She is disappointed at the place. The empty corridor seemed so cosy compared to this. There was absolutely nothing there what would even slightly indicate that someone actually lived in this house – no clothes hanging around, no empty pizza boxes, no pictures of the loved ones or family members – just a clean, spotless catalog home with white and silvery furniture.

"What do you think?" he asks proudly.

"You live in here? Or did you just buy this house?"

He looked confused. Clearly this was how he had been raised to live, she thought. Seeing how he had absolutely no idea what se had meant with her last line, she decided to slip a little white lie out of her mouth.

"It's really lovely. Very clean…and…well nice."

She knew that he wasn't buying her lie. Everybody knows that if one uses the word "nice" and especially with the tone that she had used – it's not a very good thing. But although Jack knows that she isn't head over heels in love with his home, it didn't matter. At least they were together now and nobody could disturb their night anymore.

"You want some coffee? I left my espresso into the coffee shop and I only managed to get a few sips from it anyways," he says and starts walking towards his McKitchen – the kitchen that would be the paradise for every housewife in US. She looks a bit horrified but hides her expression quickly before he sees it.

Jack puts a pot of coffee dripping and they are both standing in front of the dining table, waiting for the coffee to be ready.

"What have you been doing all this time?" he breaks the silence.

"Nothing really that special. I have tried to keep a low profile by staying in different places just hanging around," she says and leans against the dining table with her hands.

"But what are you doing here, in New York? To be honest with you, I'm really surprised to bump into you in this city. This is one of the most crowded places one can possibly find."

"I'm not sure actually either why I'm here."

She looks hurt and sad all of a sudden.

"Not saying that I wouldn't be happy that I found you "just hanging around" in my coffee shop," he says trying to bring the smile back to her face. She turns to face him and he sees that she is smiling again.

He scoops her into a tight hug and Kate makes a sound as though she would be suffocating. He pulls back instantly but smirks when he sees her giggling and brings his face just inches away from hers and wraps his hands around her waist line.

She moves her gaze to his face and starts breathing against his mouth.

The coffee maker starts making out a noise that tells them that it has dripped. Neither one of them moves. Kate shifts her hands to Jack's chest and starts caressing it while he closes his eyes

"The coffee is ready. I think," she whispers to him.

"Yeah…the coffee…" he says opening his eyes slowly and withdraws himself away from her.

He takes out two mugs from the cupboard, fills the them and hands the other one to Kate.

"Be careful. It still very hot."

She takes a sip from it and ends up burning her tongue. Kate pulls her head away from the mug rapidly and Jack can see that she is in pain.

"What did I just tell you," he says with compassion and puts his mug on the kitchen counter.

"Ith hurths," she manages to whine thru her agony. Jack takes the mug out of her hand and cups her face between his palms.

"Just breath deep and the pain should ease away soon."

Always in his doctor mode, Kate thinks and rolls her eyes. Jack doesn't see this and he continues.

"You always have to do everything against the rules, now don't you?"

The pain is gone from Kate's tongue and she relaxes under his hands.

"That's my girl," he smiles.

"I'm not your girl," she says giggling.

"Yes. You are."

He says this with a serious expression on his face and when Kate sees that he isn't smiling anymore, her giggling fades.

She looks into his eyes and notices the same longing that she had now mirroring back from them.

They stand still in the same position for what seems like forever – he holding her face between his palms and Kate's arms taking support from the dining table.

The coffee was getting cold but neither one of them cared.

Jack brought his face so close to hers that their noses were touching. Both closed their eyes when Jack eventually brushed her lips with his mouth.

At this point neither Jack nor Kate wanted to stall things any longer. They didn't have to worry about the world outside his home anymore. Or at least not now.

Kate raised her hands to the back of his neck and Jack deepened the kiss by parting his lips more and Kate followed his example.

Kate started to lick his teeth with her tongue what made Jack stiffen for a second but soon after he relaxed and continued responding to her moving lips.

He removed his palms from her face and started sliding them down her chest to her breasts. Jack stopped there for a minute and touched them cursing that she was still wearing her tank top.

This bothered him so much that he had to broke the kiss. He lifted her top over her head and took in the view in front of his eyes until he started kissing her again.

"Now this isn't fair for me," she smirked and ordered him to take away his T-shirt.

Jack was laughing inside while taking off his shirt. "She is once again bossing me around."

He tossed the piece of clothing next to hers on the floor and stepped closer to her again.

After kissing her a while, he decided to do something that he had wanted to do ever since the moment he had smelled that icky vanilla in her hair.

He moved his hands lower on her back until they reached her ass. She made a sharp gasp.

"Hop along girl," he murmured to her neck and Kate knew exactly what he meant by this.

She took support from his shoulders and when Jack had lifted her off the ground to the level of his hips, Kate wrapped her legs around them so that every part of her was as close to him as possible.

Jack was panting against her neck and eventually started kissing it making Kate to toss her head back so that the hair wouldn't be so much in his way.

After leaving a few marks on her neck area he withdrew his mouth and moved it to her lips again. This time the kiss was only brief because Jack couldn't concentrate to it properly.

He had started walking towards the bedroom but because he was still carrying Kate in his arms, the steps that he was taking were clumsy and wobbly.

Kate didn't care about his walking problems and was breathing warm, moist air to Jack's ear and had closed her eyes. Her panting made only his pacing even more difficult than it already was.

They finally arrived to his McBedroom. But this was Mc in a good way not in that it's-too-perfect Mc-way that the kitchen had been. The room looked like the Jack that Kate knew on the island. The Jack that she had kissed there. The Jack that had made her come to NYC in the first place.

He carefully places her on the bed and looked down to the curly haired beauty. He leaned his face to hers and captured her lips with his. Jack kissed her for a while until he started moving his mouth lower. After making two more hickies onto her neck he stopped and raised his head so that he could see her face's expression. She had her eyes closed and a content, happy smile on her face but after noticing that he had stopped her eyes fluttered open.

"What is it?" she asks.

Jack is looking straight into her eyes.

"Are you sure about this?"

"A-ha," she nods and presses her head back against the pillow. She arches her back and makes a high pitched moan in the back of her throat when he starts trailing kisses down her tummy and stiffens when he opens the fly to her jeans an finally takes them away.

They are both laying on their backs, sweaty and tired but happy.

She turns to her side and looks at him. He moves to face her and they both know that this would be a great time to comment somehow what had just happened but the look that they share leaves no need for those words.

He gestures her to turn so that eventually she is laying on the bed on her other side, her back pressed against his bare chest. His breathing is steady and quiet and his heart beat soothes her down.

"I missed my girl, you know," he whispers to her hair and strokes it lightly.

"I could tell."

He tightens his hold to her and finally they fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five.

The morning light is so much brighter than it should be.

Kate rubs her eyes in attempt to get them to open up. She gives up after awhile and starts turning around, trying to find Jack's figure with her hands. But she can't feel him anywhere. Kate opens her eyes and it takes a second until they get used to the sun light.

But the shock is huge when she realises where she is. There are huge palm trees all around her and a purling waterfall.

Kate tries rubbing her eyes a little bit harder but the jungle is still out there. She recognises the place. It's the same pond where she used to come over to swim with Sawyer.

What the fcuk? What is going on? Why am I here? Where is NY? Where is Jack? her mind is all confused and questions are bubbling up.

When she closes her eyes she could imagine still being in bed with him. What they would be doing if he had been laying next to her right at that moment…

"Earth to Kate."

The words startle her away from her day dreaming. Who had said them? 

"Morning Freckles. Where were you just? Seemed like you were quite away from this moment."

Kate glances down and notices that Sawyer's rather naked body is just waking up and is looking back to her. He stretches out his arms, yawning widely.

Kate has no idea what he is doing there and far most what she is doing there with him.

It's clear that she was still quite out of it all.

Sawyer places his palms to the ground and taking the required support from it, he yanks himself up into a sitting position and fixes his eyes to her face.

He starts leaning towards Kate's face but as soon as she notices his agenda, Kate starts moving her head backwards. Sawyer tilts his head looking frustrated.

Kate's eyes are full of confusion and fear. It had been enough shock to wake on the island and with Sawyer, not the other man, by her side. But that he would try to kiss her just was way too much.

"What are you doing?" she manages to ask him.

He rolls his eyes and makes a knowing smirk.

"Playing hard to get, eh? Well last night tells me a different story.." he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and scans her body.

Kate was eager to know what he meant with last night but she decided to drop the topic and focus on more relative things.

"Where is Jack?"

"Who?"

"Jack!" she yells annoyed. He know who Jack was so why did he have to play this word game with her? 

"Oh you mean him. The doctor. He died like six months ago. The cave fell on him, remember. Jesus girl, what have you been popping?"

All colour drained from her face and her guts took a nasty flip that made her feel sick. This couldn't be happening? 

Kate realised that the best thing now might be to ask all kinds of questions from Sawyer and bump up the answers to what was going on but she couldn't bring herself to do that at the moment.

She had to take some time to think all this thru. Maybe she could eventually make some sense out of this all.

She jerked herself away from Sawyer and after a little while, Kate was standing up. She was looking to the dark emptiness of the jungle and he frowned up to her figure. The sun was shining straight to his eyes and he had to raise one hand to block the bright light.

"Where are you going? It's still early in the morning. The jungle can be dangerous."

Kate had started to take steps towards the darkness but when she heard Sawyer's concerned voice, she turned to look back.

"I need to be alone for a minute," she says and continues her pacing.

"Forget your sorrows and come back here, girl."

He was patting the ground next to him and smiling gently.

Though this time Kate didn't look back nor stopped walking. She was mumbling something.

"What did you say?"

She raised her voice so that he could hear her and said:

"Don't call me a girl."

And with this, she disappeared from his sight.

She walked non-stop for hours.

Poor Sawyer. He probably had no idea why she was acting like a crazy person… 

Suddenly something that he had said came flashbacking to her.

He is dead…been like that for six months… 

How could she not remember this? It wasn't something that would just magically slip out of your mind.

She slowed her pacing down and eventually stopped.

Kate sat down next to an old tree and moved herself so that she was able to lay her back against it.

So all that happened in NY never existed in the first place? He is dead. She let out a sad and desperate sigh and wrapped her arms around her legs.

If all this is true why can't I remember what has happened? I don't even recall getting close to Sawyer and here I am in the jungle spending nights with him that make him wiggle his eye brows. 

All of a sudden, Kate started hearing noises. First they are far but it sounds like something would be coming closer. She tries to find the approaching object with her eyes but she didn't see anything. Then the sound is so close that Kate can hear something pushing thru leaves and breaking branches. The sound is coming from above her head.

She tilts her head back so that she is looking up and with a loud thud, the falling mango lands on her face, knocking her out.

In the same time in NY, Kate's eyes fly open and she sees the ceiling of Jack's bedroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six.

The surface of the brown liquid was still. It was soon broken when one drop after the other hit it forming tiny circles that were moving away from the place in which the drips had landed.

That morning, Kate was up much earlier than he was. She had been sweaty and panting hard but Jack didn't let it bother his sleeping. When Kate had eventually realised that she was back in NY and had never left his side, her lips curled up into a little smile. She placed her head back to the pillow and just peered at him for a moment.

You can hear people often say that the way you look in the morning is the way you really look.

When she saw his sleeping figure, Kate found herself hoping that someone would've never voiced out those words.

He looked so boyish. His hair was sticking to every direction and the front hair seemed to be an exact copy from Mary's hair from the movie There's Something about Mary. Kate was just wishing that his hair stayed in that position with something else than Mary's had. And he was drooling. She couldn't help but giggle a bit and after placing a soft kiss above his eye brow, Kate went to take a shower.

While she was rinsing her sweaty skin in the shower, Jack's eyes started to flutter open. He yawned widely and rubbed his face with his palms spreading the drool all over his face.

"Disgusting!" he whispered when he noticed the slime.

He quickly whipped his face to his pyjama's sleeve so Kate wouldn't see his gross sliminess. He glanced around but couldn't see her anywhere. Sudden feeling of panic struck his chest. She couldn't had just left? Not after everything that happened last night? Maybe it hadn't meant anything to her. Maybe she needed to have sex with someone and I just happened to be there… he thought.

Kate had already slipped downstairs from the bathroom. She was making breakfast. Although she only knew how to make coffee and toast bread, Kate had a feeling, he would settle for her crappy breakfast without complains. It's not like he would have someone here always making him breakfast, right? she had thought to herself.

She was still watching the coffee's slow dripping. She had eventually failed to even toast the breast right and now all she had left was that coffee. The pot was starting to full.

Jack walked down the stairs and was reliefed to see Kate standing by the kitchen counter. He was surprised to see her just staring at the coffee maker but decided it may be best if he wouldn't say anything about it.

"Morning."

She had her back to him and when Kate heard his words, she startled slightly but after turning around and seeing that Jack had said them, she relaxed.

"Morning," she responded and smiled to him.

He scanned her appearance and saw that she was fully dressed. She suddenly felt rather naked standing there facing her. But he wasn't bothered by that feeling and returned her smile.

"What is that smell?"

"It's nothing. You just don't have any bread left 'cause I managed to burn it all with the toaster."

He started laughing and Kate tried to put on the I-am-hurt face. When he saw that she was trying to get sympathy points, his laughing got even harder.

"Stop it. It's not funny. I hoped we could have a nice lil' breakfast together and now all we have for it, is that fcuking coffee," she said and after finishing her sentence the cracked up too.

"It's the thought that counts, right? Don't beat yourself up about it. I'll make scrambled eggs for us," Jack said proudly and took out the pan and the spatula.

She now laughed in tears but he kept silent. Her guffaw taunted when she noticed that he was serious.

"Are you honestly saying that you can cook?"

Jack had started to take the eggs out of the fridge but Kate could see that he was nodding as an answer to her question.

"Well this is new. What other secrets are you holding from me?" she said and sat on the chair next to the dining table.

She got a flashback from their last night together when her palm touched the table. How he had kissed her, how she had been pressed against the table and how he had eventually carried her up.

"So how do you prefer to have your eggs?"

She shook her head a little so she could come back to the present moment and get some rational words out of her mouth.

"I don't actually care. I hate it when people always ask you that. Improvise. Make them the way you like to cook them," she said.

"OK. You're the boss."

Kate stood up and poured the coffee into two cups. She slid the mug towards Jack and he took it.

"Thanks."

Kate went back to her chair and watched him cook taking sips from her coffee every now and then if he turned to look at her.

"Here we go."

He sat into the empty chair next to her and placed the plate in front of her.

"It looks…nice."

There was that word again. Nice. But this time Kate didn't have the nasty tone in her voice when she said it so Jack took this as a positive thing. When has anyone actually said that scrambled eggs look beautiful? 

She took a bite and was pleasantly surprised how good it was.

"This is not bad. It actually tastes really great," she praised his cooking and this this time Jack could easily see that she meant it.

They ate in comfortable silence and changed flirty looks over the table.

After they were done with eating the breakfast, Jack stood up and took the plates to the sink.

"I can wash them so you don't have to worry about that, OK?" she offered her help and was now standing up too.

She walked over to the sink and started cleaning the plates when Jack came from the back to wrap his arms around her waist. He entwined his fingers and held his palms on her tummy. Kate put the dishes away and started to lean against his chest.

"Forget the washing up for now. They are not going anywhere but I soon have to. It was hard enough to come up with a decent explanation for why I wasn't at work last night…" he said and put his head on her shoulder.

She leaned her head to rest against his hair and closed her eyes.

"Well last night may had been worth it, don't you agree?"

"Yep," he whispered and turned Kate to face him. "But I can't do that now. I don't want people suspecting anything stupid. The hospital is the best gossip centre, you know?"

Kate moved her eyes to his face and gave him an understanding glance.

He just played with the locks of hair that were framing her face until Kate raised her hands to cup his head.

Forcing him to come lower, she kissed him. Kate was moving her lips slowly and after he had shifted his hands to her back, Jack started responding. He made her come a little bit closer by pressing her with his palms and deepened the kiss.

Kate was surprised how urgent he seemed to be but she didn't consider this to be a bad thing. She parted her lips more and he slid immediately his tongue in.

His hands were now going under her shirt to rub her tummy. She yelped against his mouth when she felt the cold palms on her skin and Jack giggled. She smirked looking him into the eyes and started kissing him again.

Jack was moving his fingers lower on her tummy and Kate noticed this. She put her hands on his chest and withdrew herself from the kiss.

"Come on, Jack. You should be leaving to work. We can't possibly do this now."

He didn't listen and had moved to suck her neck. Kate closed her eyes and tilted her head back as he continue to move his hands lower. She let out a quiet series of moans and tried her hardest to stay strong.

"Jack, I really mean it. The clock is ticking and if you don't leave now, you will be late, big-time."

He stopped kissing her skin and raised his head so that he met her eyes. He glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Sht! You're right. I have to be there in five minutes. Damn it!" he cursed and dashed to get his stuff from upstairs.

Kate watched amused how he ran across the house trying to make up the lost time.

When he finally had everything with him, Jack stopped his running figure in front of her and leaned in to give her one kiss.

He placed his case on the floor and cupped her face between his hands. He took a step closer and made their lips press against each other harder as he was pushing Kate towards the table again.

"Now that's it," she laughed and broke the kiss. "You have to go. Be a man, take your case with you and just go. Leave already!"

He obeyed and when he was walking out of the door he turned back.

"I'll see you tonight," he yelled.

"You can bet on that."

He closed the door behind him and with that, Kate was left alone in his McApartment.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven.

Kate sat on the white couch that was in Jack's living room. She couldn't see anything imperfect there either. How the heck does this man have time to keep his house looking like this? 

After she had walked thru the house several times trying to find something interesting to do, Kate found his wardrobe. Making an amusement and evilish grin, she opens its door and starts going thru its contents.

She finds many prefect and simply boring things in there. Expensive black suits, many ties (mostly black and blue ones) and loads of white shirts. Kate makes a yawn. Just what she had expected to see. But there had to be something a little wild beneath all this McNess.

She was contemplating and trying to figure out where he could've possibly hidden his wild side. Kate sat on his bead and was thinking hard.

Then it hits her. Men used to put their secrets under their beds. Or at least that's what they did in the movies. Kate couldn't imagine Jack hiding them somewhere else.

She bended down to look beneath the bed. When she saw a little brown wood box, she smiled. Now let's see. What could it be? His porn cache? She shivered and thought if she really would like to know his secrets or what if something totally weird comes up? If I find a video where there are two leathered men called Gunnar spanking each other, I'm so out of here. She giggled and decided it was worth the risk and pulled the box out.

It was dusty and Kate tried to clean it with her hands so she could see the writing on top of the box. After dusting it for a while, Kate was able to make sense out of the engraved letters.

"To Jack, my son. May your life be filled with happiness and joy. Love, Daddy." 

She made a disgusted exhale. Jack hadn't told very much about his past to her but she knew could tell what kind of father he had had from the way he talked about him. Never-quite-there-when-their-kids-really-needed-them kind of father. His kinds of parents wished that their fancy presents would make up for their absence. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

Trying not to be bothered by the text, she opened the box. The engraving had actually made her even more curious. Kate just couldn't see that the Good Old Doctor would've had the guts to hide his leathered men in his daddy-box.

The lid opened with a loud creaking noise and Kate peered quickly around her, scanning the room and made sure that no one could caught her peeking to his box. It could be that even she would have hard time trying to explain her way out of this one.

Even his freaking secret place was organized Mc-likely. There were nice family pictures where everybody were smiling and having a jolly time. Dear God. He must've had a horrible childhood living amongst these fakers! she thought to herself. Tossing the family photos aside, she started flipping thru the other piles. Pictures of friends, some more smiles from various family gatherings and friends again. His mates looked like they were having real fun in the photos. Maybe his life wasn't so bad after all. 

Then as she continued going thru the pictures, her eyes got caught on something interesting.

Just before she had managed to escape from the authorities, Kate had given Jack a folded piece of paper with a message on it. She had written it to thank him for everything he had done for her on the island and to basically say goodbye to him. Yet here I am. she thought and rolled her eyes.

And now three months after she had given it to him, Kate saw it again. Kate put down the photos and started examining the paper more carefully. It was still folded in the same way. Actually the only visible difference in the paper was its texture. It felt like it would've been wet one time and then dried leaving it slightly wrinkled. Has he been crying? 

Suddenly Kate heard keys being clinked and with a loud bang the door had opened into the house and someone walked in.

"Kate!"

It was Jack.

Kate was stuck with panic when she realised that the box was still laying wide open on his bed. She had no time to sort out the pictures and was now stuffing them randomly into the box, not caring that they wouldn't be in his McOrder anymore.

"Kate! Where are you?" he kept on yelling.

Finally she had cramed all the pictures in to the box but had decided to slip the paper message into her back pocket. She quickly slid the box back under the bed yet trying to do it with caution so she wouldn't make so much noise.

Kate heard him pacing around the house and eventually he was climbing the up the stairs and opened the bedroom door.

She was sitting on the bed, legs crossed and pretending to read his magazine. She hoped to dead god that he would buy her act.

"Oh, here you are. Why didn't you answer me when I yelled at you?" he said and put down his case and started taking off his tie.

"I was just reading this magazine I found and…."

"Say no more, love. I understand that…" he peered over to see what she was reading, "…cars? Well that cars can be interesting."

She only now noticed what the magazine she had grabbed was about. Go figure. Bad karma is starting to kick in already. 

She tossed the issue of Cars Gone Wild over her shoulder and turned her face to him.

"So how was work?"

"Same old, same old. Few car accident patients and some other normal things. But you're really not interested about that so you don't have to pretend that you would be."

Kate had tried to put on her best I'm-listening faces but he obviously had seen right thru it. She blushed and Jack started smiling.

"It's OK. Although I'm a doctor I do get why some people just aren't that into the world of medical stuff. To tell you the truth I'd actually rather hear about your day."

Nothing much, Jack dearest. I was just trying to locate your porn cache and I ended up finding your secret box with my goodbye letter in it. Maybe that wasn't the best answer.

"Nothing special. I have just mostly been reading your magazines and tried to clean up a bit. Bet you can't even notice it," she responded.

He seemed to be content with this answer and continued talking.

"Well I thought the house looked somehow different. I don't really have anything good to read around here so I'm hoping you weren't completely bored."

"I've been doing that for about three months now – reading boring magazines. The only difference between now and then is that this is no coffee shop."

He was smiling to her. Jack saw something new in Kate. He just couldn't quite put his finger on it. She looked reliefed.

"Anyways, I'm glad that you didn't leave because I bought a little surprise for you," he said turning to go out of the bedroom.

She didn't follow his at first but then he thrust out his hand and after she had grabbed it, he led them out of the room towards the living room area.

On the table that was in front of the TV, was a huge pile of Chinese take away cups.

"Now I know it's not very fancy or nothing but I just thought that it would be fun to eat something together," he seated her on the couch and handed the chopsticks to her.

"Thanks."

She was blown away by this. It wasn't anything fancy like he had said and even the sauce in her chicken was way too hot but for some reason, she got the same feeling you get when you are on your first date with someone. Even though they had had sex just last night this felt more intimate to her. The butterflies were there in her stomach and the excited feeling when you don't know what is going to happen next, went thru her spine.

"Are you enjoying your chicken?"

Kate had moist eyes from all the spices she had consumed but she still managed to give him a smile and a nod.

"Good. I didn't know for sure what you would like so I decided to go with the safe choice. Usually everybody likes chicken."

Jack finished his pork meal before Kate. She was struggling to swallow the hot food but with time, she got it all down.

After he had taken the leftovers to the kitchen, Jack returned and Kate was sitting alone on the couch. He quickly joined her with the remote control and started travelling from channel to channel.

She briefly frowned at the telly, then the remote and then brought her eyes to Jack. When he noticed that she was staring at him, he yanked himself into a better position so that he could see Kate properly.

"Not so interested about watching telly either?"

"Not particularly. But I don't mind if you want to watch something. I can just lay here while you flip thru the channels," she said and was starting to lean her head against his side.

He raised his arm and put it around her shoulders as she jerked herself closer to him. She let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

Kate's eyes were fluttering open. She searched the clock with her gaze and it was 11.55pm. She yawned widely and Jack felt her movement in his arm and turned his face to look at her.

"Did the TV wake you up? I've tried to keep the volume as low as possible but sometimes Conan just makes these sudden loud sounds…"

She stopped his talking by bringing tiredly one of her fingers to his lips.

"Please, Jack. Don't speak."

He looked surprised how she wasn't amused at all. She actually looked quite angry.

"The telly didn't wake me up. I just did. So don't worry about that," she said and then the happiness came back to her face when she curled her lips into a little smile.

She fixed her eyes to his and tried to read his expressions.

"Kate…"

"I said no talking. Not tonight. I just don't have the energy to do that," she said and has moved her gaze to his chest and she started rubbing it with her palms.

She swung her knee over his legs so she was sitting on his lap, frowning down to his face.

Kate shifted her hand up from his chest and entwined her fingers behind his neck. First, he did nothing and was just sitting there, enjoying her caressing hands on him but soon after he had his fingers tickling her back's bare skin.

Kate tilted her head back so that she could get rid of the loose hairs that were hanging around her face. She let him do what he wanted with his hands for a while and then grabbed them into her own possession. Jack pulled back wondering what she was going to do with them.

Kate looked into his eyes and he saw her determination. She forced him to raise his hands above his head so eventually she was holding them against the wall with her palms, not letting him to move them.

She brought her face closer to his and started kissing him – first on the forehead and the moving to lick his earlobes. He tried to get control over his hands but whenever he moved them, Kate would apply more pressure against them and after a while, Jack gave up and went along with her game.

When she moved to work on his neck, Jack stiffened and let out a low groan. Kate noticed that she was having the wanted effect on him and decided it was time to quit foreplay.

She raised her head to his face's level and started kissing him on the lips. She let his hands free and moved her own to stroke his hair. Jack brought his arms slowly down while responding to her moving lips. His hands stopped on her shoulders and he started to push her down gently until they were laying on the couch – Kate's figure under his body.

He continued kissing her and was now using his tongue. It was thrusted into Kate's mouth and it was her turn to go all stiff.

They made out for a while until Kate had had enough of his mouth and wanted him on other levels.

She tried to flip their positions but they ended up falling off the couch and Jack got a nasty hit into back because it had been the first thing that had touched the floor.

"God. I'm so sorry. Are you OK, Jack?" Kate was asking and pulled away from him.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut as the pain really sunk in. When he saw the concern in her eyes, he tried to smile but only managed to make a terrible looking grin.

Kate made a comforting laugh and started kissing his nose gently and after a while she was trailing butterfly kisses all over his face.

And with that Jack's pain was forgotten. It was still there but he didn't care about it anymore.

He stopped he kissing by cupping her face between his palms and forced her to look at him. He pressed his lips again against her mouth and made her come up into an upright position.

She broke the kiss and brought her hands to get rid of his shirt. Her tiny fingers were unbuttoning it while he was frowning down to her as she worked her way thru the buttons. When she was finally done, she tossed the shirt on the couch next to them and moved her hands to his chest. Kate was moving them up and down on his muscles but he stopped her palms.

"Not now."

She pulled her fingers back and raised her arms up while Jack pulled off her top. Soon after that their pants were gone too and she finally had him.

There was a small bit of light in the room, only illuminating certain parts of it and forming dark shadows to the walls. He was moving slowly back and forth above her and was panting warm air against her neck while she was making quiet moans against his shoulder.

They were laying on the floor breathing heavily. He was on his side and she mirrored his position. Jack took her hand into his palms and entwined their fingers as they both started to drift asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight.

As soon as she woke, Kate was struck with stinging pain. Her body gad gone partly numb. Sleeping on the floor might not have been the best idea. Even opening her eyes hurt.

She glanced around and couldn't see Jack at first, but when the feeling started to come back to her body, she felt him laying behind her.

He was holding his arm around her waist and had his chest pressed against her back, his face sunken into her curls. His breathing was steady and slow so Kate assumed that he must be still asleep.

Although, she was wide awake, Kate didn't to get up just yet. She brought her hand to her waist and took Jack's palm into hers, squeezed it a bit and closed her eyes, slowly jerking her body even closer to him.

Moments passed but he wouldn't wake up. The first two hours, they had laid there, she had been fine with just holding him against her, but now she was starting to be hungry and really just wanted to get up.

She let go off his hand and was about to stand up when she heart a murmuring voice coming from Jack's direction. She turned to look at him and saw him yawning. Kate laughed and rolled her eyes, when she noticed that he had been drooling in his sleep again.

"Well finally he decided to woke up."

He gives her a nasty frown but then starts giggling.

"You really expect me to wake up early when I have had such a rough night?" he says smiling and looks at her.

She gets what he means but that question and it makes her happy inside.

"Guess we had pretty good time last night. But enough about that. Seriously, I'm starvation centre here," she whines and is about to stand up until Jack's hand grabs her arm and forces her to come back down.

She comes back to the floor and lays on her side facing him. They are looking one another to the eyes and Jack brings his hand to stroke the loose curls away from her face.

"How come your body isn't hurting? Or then you are just hiding it well," she said putting her other hand on his neck.

"It's quite stiff but I'm a fighter. Actually my back is hurting more from the hit it took last night than my body is from sleeping on the floor. Anyway, you are the one who brought the action to this level. I would've been just OK with the couch."

She was drawing tiny circles to his neck.

"You know it wasn't my intention to toss you off the couch to the floor."

"Sure I know."

Kate stops her circle drawing and presses the whole length of her hand against the skin of his neck. Jack digs his fingers to her hair and jerks himself closer to her. Her gaze shifts to his lips and then back to his eyes.

"Hi," Jack whispers.

"Hi."

They are staring at each other as jack starts bringing his head closer to her face.

He touches her forehead with his lips and Kate closes her eyes. His lips are moving tiredly and carefully. He moves the trail of kisses slowly lower – above her eyebrow, her nose and her lips.

He is pressing her mouth lightly but his lips aren't moving anymore. They are just breathing against each other's faces.

Eventually they start opening and closing their mouths in the same rhythm. She brings her palm to rest on the side of his face and moves her knee over his pelvis, making their bodies even more entangled.

After a while of slow kissing, she withdraws her face further from him.

"Honestly Jack. I am really hungry and if you don't hurry up, you'll be late for work again."

He opened his eyes and frowned her hair starting to comb it with his fingers.

"You're right," he finally says and pulls back from her and moves his body into sitting position. "Let me fix you something."

Kate smiles to him as he walks to the kitchen to find something. She goes down to lie back on the floor and is looking up to the ceiling, crossing her hands under her breasts.

She was contemplating the situation and how ludicrous it was in her head. How long were they going to keep on doing this? Just hanging around and having occasional mind blowing sex? _I need to talk to him about this,_ Kate decided. _To find out were we are going?_ She made a barely noticeable yet determined nod and moved to sit up. "Jack, we need to…" she started but stopped as soon as she saw him.

Jack was fully dressed in his black suit and was holding his leather case in his left hand.

"I made you some porridge. I couldn't find anything else so I hope you like oak."

"You're not going to hang around to keep me company?"

"Look at the clock. I have to be work soon so you just have to enjoy your breakfast without me," he said and started heading towards the front door.

"I'll see you tonight then I guess," she said staring up to his distant figure.

"See you then, girl."

And with this he was gone again.

She was wandering around his house, having a hard time to figure things to do. She had already done his dirty laundry and read today's newspaper. No interesting news there – Bush in some political meeting in Europe making a totally ass of himself, some bird flu cases found in Asia and other stuff that didn't really concern or affect her life in any way.

_I could always try to find where he really hides his porn?_ She drops this idea as soon as she remembers what she found the first time she had tried to do that. The paper message was still in her back pocket.

She took it out and was twiddling it with her fingers. _What has he been doing with this all this time? You'd think he would've just read it and then tossed it away_. Or at least that was what she had thought until yesterday.

Kate folded the note after reading it a few times and placed it back into her pocket. She was sitting on the living room couch when she suddenly started hearing noises from the front door.

She immediately rose up to her feet and was looking a place to hide if the person would walk in. _There was the upstairs or I could always run to the kitchen and try to…_

Everything went quiet and then came a silent thud. Kate saw a pile of letters dropped thru the door's mail hole. _Just the mailman,_ she sighed.

She went to get the post and lifted it up, flipping thru them. Bills, some ads… But then something caught her attention. A neatly hand-written letter.

She tossed the rest of the post on the kitchen table and started to scan this weird arrival. It had a bit of perfume like sent to it. Kate was able to see whom it was from by putting the letter up against the light and seeing who had signed it. _Sarah._

_Why would she be writing to Jack?_

Kate remembered faintly who Sarah was. Jack had mentioned her name briefly sometimes when they had been talking. His ex-wife.

She couldn't resist the temptation and ripped it open.

_Jack darling,  
I'll be home soon from France. Will you come to pick me up from the airport as you promised? My plane lands tomorrow at 16.00pm. I've missed you. I love you so much.  
Love, your wife, Sarah._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine.

The moist drop splattered across the paper that she was holding in her hand. The perfectly written neat letters that formed those words were looking back to her and she felt that they were mocking her and laughing to her misery. Kate sensed another tear coming, but she managed to stop it by whiping her hand across her cheek.

She read the letter one more time and seated herself on his couch.

J_ack darling,  
I'll be home soon from France. Will you come to pick me up from the airport as you promised? My plane lands tomorrow at 16.00pm. I've missed you. I love you so much.  
Love, your wife, Sarah._

_…like you promised…_

_…your wife…_

She was staring at her name that was written in McHandwriting to the bottom of the letter.

There didn't seem to be any misunderstanding. Jack knew very well about this but had just somehow forgot to mention to her that he was a married man. But how could he have done this to her? Jack had even known that she would be coming home today but still he had gone on about what they would do when he got home in the evening.

Kate was holding the letter with her both hands and felt like ripping it apart right there. She was able to restrain herself and placed the piece of paper carefully on the couch.

The pain hit her chest. All the anger was building up inside her and she herself more betrayed than ever. She threw her head back and opened her mouth so she could scream her heart out the make the pain go away, but nothing came out of her. 

The tear that she had tried to hold back appeared again but this time Kate didn't even try to stop it. With that one escaped tear many more followed. The teardrops warmed her face and her tongue tasted their saltiness.

She tilts her head forwards and buries her face to her palms, the sobbing now getting more louder. 

Thousand thoughts go thru her head. What had been his intention with her in the first place? Had she just been his fcuking toy when her regular fcuk had been out of town?

She raised her face from her palms and whiped her moist skin with her shirt's sleeve.

_So what the heck am I going to do now? I could always just leave the letter on the kitchen table and run. Or I could just evaporate from his home, without leaving any signs._

She weighted her options, trying to decide what to do next. After contemplating for a while, she made a choice to stay until he would get home. Maybe this was all just a big misunderstanding and they would laugh about it afterwards. Deep down Kate knew that the chances for that happening were slim but she decided to give him the benefit of a doubt.

He came precisely in the same time he had come home the day before. First she heard the footsteps, then the clinking of the keys and finally the bang from the door.

Kate hadn't moved from the couch. She was twiddling the letter with her fingers and her eyes were still red and swollen from all the crying.

"Kate!" Jack was yelling out her name again when he stepped in.

"Why are you just sitting there? Aren't you going to answer me?" he said smiling when he noticed her on the couch and tossed the keys on the kitchen table.

His smile faded when he saw Kate's face more properly.

"What is it?" he asked and sat next to her.

She still hadn't said a word. _Like you didn't know,_ she thought. Kate was looking at the floor in front of her, but eventually raised her gaze to his face.

"You tell me," she snapped, thrusting the letter into his direction.

He looked confused but took the letter. After folding it open and reading it, all the colour drained from his face and shocked expression was coming to his eyes.

Kate had been looking at him the whole time and the tears started to moist her eyes again, making them glister against the light that was coming thru the windows.

"Kate…" he started but stopped soon. When he turned to look at her in the eyes, it was too much for her so Kate closed her eyes, letting more salty proof of her misery fall down her face.

Jack shifted his gaze to the floor and an awkward silence came upon them. She slowly opened her now even more red eyes and fixed them to him.

"Let me explain."

Kate knew that nothing he could say at this point could make the situation any different. No explanation could make it better.

"She just asked me to marry her again. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I didn't even know that I would ever bump into you again."

After hearing his words, she had stopped crying. Her eyes where still moist but the tear float was gone. Moment later an amusement look came to her face and she started laughing bitterly. 

"That's your explanation? It didn't actually explain anything. Where is the explanation for why you didn't tell me that you have a wife? And your ex-wife, no less! Where the fcuk is the explanation for that, Jack!" she yelled against his face.

He was still staring to the floor and Kate could see a bit of moist shine in the corner of his eye.

"I never meant it to be like this," he whispered and finally raised his eyes from the floor to her.

It was clear that she was very angry and hurt. It stabbed a knife thru his heart to see her like this and what made the blade twist even more was the fact that he had caused all that hurt and anger to her.

"Well…I guess that's it then."

She placed her palms to her knees and yanked herself up. Kate started gathering her clothes that were lying everywhere and after she was done, she gave one last look to his direction.

Jack hadn't moved from the couch and was staring at her. His eyes looked sad and the same longing that had been there on the night they had met, was there again. She raised the strap of her hobo bag to her shoulder and was about to walk out of the door when he stood up and yelled: "Wait."

She turned to look at him and saw his figure walking towards her.

"You can't just leave."

"Of course I can and there isn't actually anything you can do about it. Because that letter and your marriage are two very existing things, I shouldn't have ever come to this flat with you in the first place," she ranted and opened the door.

Jack tried to stay as calm as he possibly could and pulled the door back closed. She looked very pissed and was frowning at him.

She took few steps towards the front door about to open it again. This time he grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving.

"Let go of me!"

He didn't.

"I said, let go of me!"

He wasn't holding her arm hard so she could've jerked it away anytime she wanted. But she didn't.

Jack turned her body carefully into a position where they were facing each other.

"Let go of me!" she was still yelling and pulled her arm away from his grip.

Jack pushed her against the wall, placing his hands to her waist.

"Let go of me…"

Her voice was only a whisper now and Kate was pounding his chest with her fists powerlessly as the tears came back.

Jack let her rant, hit his chest and kick him. The only thing her was doing was holding her against the wall with his hands on her sides and looking her straight into the eyes.

After raging for a while, she realised that it was no use. He was stronger than her and he wasn't going to let go of her. Kate stopped slapping him and looked up to his face.

The moist had build up in his eyes to the point where he couldn't hold it back anymore. One tear escaped from the corner of his eye and Kate saw it. She raised her hand to wipe it away but Jack's palm took her hand by the wrist stopping its motion.

He leaned his face closer, placing one quick kiss on her lips. Kate squinted her eyes shut. He pulled his head back and was looking to her lips, panting slowly and heavily against her.

"Jack, please. Don't," she whispered.

He wasn't hearing this and cupped her cheeks, pulling himself closer to her weak body.

"Don't," she tried one more time but it was no use.

He scooped her lips with his own and started planting several small kisses on them. The tears were falling steadily from her eyes. Before long she could taste her own salty teardrops that Jack's tongue was delivering into her mouth.

She slid her palms to rest on his chest and started responding. He made a quiet sound of relief. _She was still on the same page with me,_ he thought to himself.

Removing his hands from her face, he began to trail them down her body until they reached her tummy. He gently pushed her harder against the wall and caressed her skin beneath the tank top.

She broke their kiss and looked at him. Jack didn't pay attention to this and moved his hands lower. She tossed her head back and groaned a bit. He was working his mouth on her neck when the reality hit her.

_What am I doing?_

She snatched herself away from him and looked him with shock in her eyes.

He tried to grab her but this time she was faster.

"I said, don't."

She was walking away to the door. Jack knew he couldn't stop her from leaving if that really was what she wanted.

"Just know that I will be here if you ever come back," he said a sad expression on his face.

The sadness took over her body and sent shivers thru her spine, but she gathered her energy, pushed the misery aside and picked up the bag from the floor.

They were silent for a little moment longer, just staring one another.

Eventually she opened her mouth:

"Go get your precious wife. She's probably waiting for you."

She slammed the front door closed on her way out.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten.

Jack could hear her steps echoing in the corridor. Eventually the sound of the pacing stopped. The exit door opened and slammed back close. She had left the building.

He stood in front of the door, staring at it like he would've had the power to look straight thru it. The look in his eyes was dead and the whole situation that had just happened felt surreal.

Bit by bit it all started to sink in and the panic struck his chest. What seemed surreal began to look real now. A moment ago she had been there, kissing him and then the next minute she was gone. Just like that.

He leaned his back against the wall and as he buried his face to his palms, he started to slide down towards the floor until he was sitting on it. Jack pressed his forehead against his knees and began the beating-up.

_What were you thinking when you brought her into your home? That you could live happily-ever-after with her?_ he thought and slapped his forehead with his palm.

There was no excuse to treat Kate like he had treated her. Though Sarah was never home he had no right to cheat her. She was allowed to travel the world if that was what she wanted to do.

And to top it all off he had now managed to hurt Kate as well. The knife went a little further into his heart as he thought what he had just done.

The door makes a sudden bang and Jack raises his gaze rapidly up. _Did she come back?_

When he recognises the person who came in, he buries his face to his knees again and makes a disappointed sigh.

"Why on earth didn't you come to the airport to pick me up like you said? I waited two hours for you but you never showed up! I had to get a cab."

Sarah walked into the flat from the doorway but stopped when she saw him sitting on the floor looking miserable.

"What's wrong?" she asked tossing her keys to the kitchen table and leaning herself down to his level.

There was a long silence as Jack ignored her burning gaze. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore and moved his eyes to her face.

"Honey, what is it?"

He had no idea of what to respond to her but he knew that he couldn't tell the truth to her.

Instead, he just rose up from the floor and walked to the kitchen.

"How was France?" he tried to change the subject.

Sarah gave him an annoyed look for not telling her what was going on but she knew all too well that she wasn't going to get anything out of him if he wanted it to be that way. So she decided that the best thing to do was just to let the matter slide pass.

"France was fine. Nothing new there," she said and the look in her eyes softened.

"Something special happened here when I was away?" she asked following him to the kitchen to make some coffee. "Do you want some?"

The smell of coffee bean rushed his mind to the moment he had seen her in the small café. The sent of old and bad coffee had surrounded them in there but the beans that Sarah was about to use smelled so new and modern. Like they would've been somehow wrong.

"Can you still speak?" she said staring at him. "You've been awfully quiet."

He snapped back to the reality.

"I think I prefer tea to night. It's getting quite late anyway. But you make some if you want to."

He reached his arm to get the tea out from the cupboard but her hand stopped him.

"Wait. I got something for you from Paris that you might like."

He brought his arm back and looked at her enthusiastic figure as she dashed towards her luggage. Sarah was going thru her stuff and Jack had moved his gaze from her to the coffee maker.

At that moment, he could see why Kate had been staring at it so intensively that one morning – it really did calm you down, swept the negative issues of your life to the back of your mind.

According to the sound that Sarah let out, she had finally found what she had been looking for. She stood up and was holding a small box in her palm.

"Vanilla tea?" he murmured looking sad and amused by the irony of the situation.

"Yes. I've always thought that you love vanilla things and that just caught my eye in the store and I decided to buy it for you…" she smiled.

"I think I'm just gonna go to bed. I don't feel so great," he informs, handing the tea box back to her.

She takes it but looks confused.

"Are you sure you are OK?" she asks him as he is walking upstairs.

He turns around to answer but he isn't looking her into the eyes.

"I'll be fine. I think it's just that I haven't been sleeping much lately so a good night sleep ought to do the trick," he answered and continued to climb the steps to upstairs where he drifted into his dreams.

He woke up when Sarah came to the bedroom a few hours later. The strings in the bed went slightly down creaking as she sat down. She had taken off almost all of her clothes and looked rather tired.

Although he wasn't sleeping anymore, Jack kept his eyes closed, hoping that she would by his act. It would appear that she didn't notice his pretending because she was just lying on her side of the bed without saying anything.

Jack had his back to her and she wasn't too happy about that. To fix it, Sarah started dragging her body closer to him and eventually reaching his back, she wrapped her arms around him. His eyes fluttered open.

"Didn't you miss me at all?" she mumbles against his neck, bringing her body even more near to him suggestively.

"I would just like to sleep now, please?" he simply responses and there is a bit of frustration in his voice.

She gets the hint and withdraws herself from him, feeling utterly rejected.

"OK. Good night, honey," she says silently and turns her back to him and goes to lie on the far edge of her side of the bed.

He doesn't say anything back, just tightens his grip to the sheets.

The cold treatment continued every night after that. Jack didn't speak much to her and eventually she got tired of being the only one who talked so she cut her words back to the minimum as well. One time he just couldn't listen to her begging and whining anymore and had given himself to her. She got what she had wanted from him but his mind hadn't been there with his body.

A month had passed since she had run away. From those 30 days, Sarah had been home two weeks. Though most of the time he couldn't have even told that she was there. So it was pretty much the same to him if she would've been away the whole time.

Jack had started to get his take away coffees from their coffee shop now regularly. Although the espressos you got there were horrible and tastes like they had been made out of the washing up water, he wasn't going to let that bother him. If he had spare time in his hands, he would come there to sit and take in the old-fashioned smell of coffee and freshly baked cupcakes.

He didn't know the exact reason why he kept on torturing himself by being constantly in there – was it because it brought good memories to him or was it just the fact that he hoped he could bump into her again. Either way, Jack didn't stop going there.

He had had maybe one of the hardest nights of his life. Jack had lost three of his patients that day and one of them had been a 5-year-old girl. She had wanted to be a writer when she grew up, she had told him. He had listened carefully as the girl, Maria, had gone on about her future.

He had had the night shift so it was still early in the morning. _Maybe somewhere around 8am_, he thought without having the energy nor will to check the exact time from his watch.

The door creaked in its rusty hinges louder than it usually did and Jack made a nasty smirk to it. _Like you would have it rough._

He paced towards the counter and saw that the girl who once had burned his hands was on duty that morning. He rolled his eyes.

"Double espresso. And make sure you put some whiskey in it as well," ordered his normal caffeine resource with a little extra kick and walked over to the empty table that was located in the back of the coffee shop.

He scanned the place quickly before grabbing the latest issue of the New Yorker. There were only a few people sitting there their noses either buried into their coffee cups or into a book or a magazine of some sort.

He brought the cup to his lips and read the headlines. Nothing really interesting but it would make time pass nicely.

The creaking door opened and closed. Jack sighed. _Why couldn't they just fix the door or better yet, get a new one._

To his surprise the palm-burning waitress came by his table with a bottle of scotch in her hand.

"You really look like you could need more of this," she said smiling and placed the bottle next to his coffee cup on the table.

Jack started to look for his wallet to pay for it.

"Don't worry about that, honey. It's on the house."

He smiled to her and thanked her for the kind act admitting that she had been just right. That was exactly what he needed now.

The waitress turned to walk away but suddenly came back and lowered her head to his level.

"And by the way, you're girl just came in," she said making a gesture to the corner table with her head and with that she walked away.

Jack glanced to the direction she had pointed and saw Kate's figure, sipping her cappuccino.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven.

The waitress was looking at Jack behind the counter as she pretended to be busy with cleaning the mugs.

Her shift had already ended but she wanted to stay in for a little while longer to see how all this was going to end.

"Annie, you can go home now. My shift just started…" she other waitress interrupted her thoughts. 

"Shut up, sweetie. I wanna see this."

He was staring at her curly hair and how it moved slightly every time Kate tilted her head. It was quite obvious that the magazine she was reading was about in the same interest level with the car magazine _Cars Gone Wild_ that she had pretended to be reading earlier at his place.

Kate hadn't noticed him because Jack was sitting a couple of table from her. To see him completely, she would've had to raise her gaze from her magazine and glance directly to his table's direction. That could draw people's attention to her and it was exactly the thing that Kate was trying to avoid the most at the moment.

Jack took a swig from the bottle of whiskey that the waitress girl had brought to him and placed it back on the table after getting the necessary encouraging from it.

Without even thinking what to do next, he grabbed his work case and stood up from the chair, starting to walk towards her table.

With few long steps, he reached her table and he seated himself on the empty chair that was on the other side of the table.

Kate was startled by the person who had suddenly joined her. She found it extremely difficult to swallow the cappuccino that she had just sipped in but when Kate finally managed to gulp it down her throat, she raised her eyes from the floor to recognize the stranger.

The face that she finds staring back at her belongs to the person whom she wants nothing to do with and to whom she wants to see the most. Only thing she was able to do was to frown back.

He had changed somehow. The stubble on his face was thicker and his hair had grown a bit, but it wasn't those changes that caught her attention. His eyes reflected emotionally drained feeling.

"Oh. It's you," she eventually broke the silence. Her voice was cold and hurt but still she wasn't able to make it sound harsh or uncaring.

He didn't say anything and was looking her straight to the eyes. Although she had spoken Kate hadn't taken her gaze away from his face, but as she noticed that he wasn't going to say anything back, she broke the staring by shifting her eyes to the table.

_How the heck should I be able to run away from him again?_ she thought and the idea of her having to leave him once more, made her eye lids squint close and she swallowed clumsily.

Moving the gaze back up, she could see that Jack was still staring at her. He had brought his palms on the coffee table.

Her uncaring and cold safety wall came crumbling down when she saw the glister in the corner of his eye.

Realising that this might be the only chance she would get to leave she yanked herself up. _If I don't leave now I may never be able to go_. She grabbed her hobo bag and was about to take a step when Jack's fingers all of a sudden curled around her wrist.

"Just sit down and hear me out, will you? I'm not going to let you simply walk out on me twice," he said silently and looked hopefully up to her.

Kate let out a loud and tired sigh as she slowly turned back to face him.

"What do you want from me?" she whispered.

"Just listen to what I have to say. That's all. After that, you can go if that is what you want."

Kate glanced to her wrist and when Jack noticed her gesture he let go off her. She put her bag down as she sat back to the chair. The determined and waiting expression took over her face.

"OK. I'm listening. Talk," she said crossing her arms under her breasts and swung one of her legs over the other. 

Jack flashed a brief smile that soon faded off. He tried to regain the moisture to his dry mouth by licking his lips quickly before he started talking.

"The thing is that when I brought you to my apartment, I wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't know what might happen after I had seen you and the things that had happened before that moment were swept to the back of my mind," he said slowly and articulated every word carefully.

Kate tilted her head to left and raising her eyebrow she let him know that she wasn't buying this completely.

"You honestly expected me to believe you that you didn't remember that you had a wife?" she snapped and looked him straight to the eyes.

"I'm not saying that," Jack started and her expression was even more waiting than it had been before.

He swallowed hard and let out a sigh shifting his gaze to his palms that were on the table. After contemplating something for a short spell, he brought his eyes back to her. The glistering had come to them again.

"I hadn't seen you in three months when we met here the first time. How could I not kiss you, touch you or make love to you?"

His answer took her off guard and she had to move her eyes away from him.

This point Jack had lost almost every rational thought that he had had during their conversation and was letting his emotional side take over.

He slid his hands towards her on the table and stood up from his chair leaning over their coffee cups so his face was close to hers. He shifted the pressure to his palms taking support from the table's surface and captured her lips with his mouth.

At first Kate felt stupid just sitting on her chair, her arms hanging by her sides. On top of that, his nose was starting to tickle her left cheek as it moved slightly back and forth on her skin at the same time that he opened and closed his mouth.

She brought her head forward and started kissing him back. He was pleased to see her reacting this way, beginning to press his lips harder against her as his nose dug deeper into her cheek.

Kate raised her hands and cupped his tilted head between her palms, parting her lips and letting him deepen the kiss.

After a while he broke their clumsy kiss but kept his face still close to her.

"Come here," he said leading her towards him.

She wasn't reluctant and rose up from her chair and made her way to him. He pulled her arm harder and she fell into his lap. After giggling a bit and readjusting her position, she was sitting on his lap, legs on both sides of him and caressing his short hair. She brought her head lower and kissed his ear.

He moved his hands to her back forcing their chests to meet. Placing small kisses to her neck, he mumbled something.

"What…"

"Do you want to get out of her?" he spoke against her neck between the kisses.

"What about Sarah?" she whispered to his ear.

"She's not home."

Kate withdrew her head away from his mouth and looked at his face. He worried what her reaction might be but eventually she nodded to him hopping off from his lap. She grabbed her bag and waited until he was ready to leave as well.

He took her palm into his hand, entwined their fingers and led her out of the coffee shop towards his home once again.

Annie smiled to the other waitress who looked at her weirdly.

"I was right. It was worth staying extra time. Now I can go home," she said making a smirk.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

The streetlights reflected to Kate's eyes from the pavement. The asphalt was wet and glimmering from the rain droplets that were trickling down. The drops were so small that you could barely even notice them but you could definitely feel them on your skin as they made the air go humid.

Kate smiled as she was thinking about what her hair would end up looking like. This kind of weather made the curls in her hair go even more curler. But at that moment she couldn't bother her mind about stuff like that. She was too happy now to let it be ruined by something as stupid as worrying about her appearance.

And from the way his body was squashed against her side he had no trouble finding her appearance adorable and beautiful enough.

He was holding his arm around her upper body and pulled her body closer every time he felt like she was getting even an inch too far. Kate made no objections and eventually brought her own palm to rest on his waist.

She was prepared to the turns that they had to take to get to his place. She already knew the way. He took notice of this fact when they had to take the street to their left and Kate was already taking it when he was just about to turn. Jack only followed her motions and smiled to himself.

When they finally reached the building where his apartment was located, Jack and Kate stopped as he opened the door. This time there was no goofing around about who would go in first or something else that would stall them in any way.

They walked hand in hand the stairs up to the second storey and paced the corridor length to his flat's door. When they reached it, Jack let his grip slide away from her hand so he could open the door. He was going thru his pocket to find the keys but he had difficulties to concentrate because Kate was standing right behind him and was rubbing her hands against his tummy. She smiled when she heard him make a sharp inhale as she dug a bit of nail into him.

The door made its usual bang noise and opened. She followed him in still hanging onto him with her palms. Only when they were completely inside the flat and the door was shut close, did she let go of him. He turned to face her and saw her eyes looking back to him.

"Do you want to eat or something?" he asked but didn't actually concentrate as much to the question itself that to her lips that he was now staring.

Kate took a step closer to him and seemed fairly amused that he had even bothered to ask such a question when he already knew the answer.

"Guess what I want," she said making a smirk and taking another step towards him.

"Well how could I guess that? I have so many different things in here. Crackers, apples, eggs…" he listed lowering his voice as he spoke and closing up the distance between them.

"Mmm…I like crackers," she whispered and started rubbing his chest pushing him against the edge of the kitchen table. His muscles tensed up under her touch as Jack closed his eyelids. 

When she was about to move her hands lower, he stopped her. 

She looked up to his eyes as if asking _what is it?_. He gave her the answer when he kissed her.

Kate started responding immediately and slowly brought her palms to his face. After reaching them she cupped his cheeks and raised herself to the tips of her toes so she could be more in the same level with him but he was too tall.

Noticing that she was having a bit of a trouble Jack lent in more. Kate smiled against his mouth and moved her palms to his hair.

It felt somehow different than before. She suddenly broke the kiss and Jack was left hovering the air around her mouth with his lips. His eyes fluttered open and he frowned at the woman without any understanding as she was now examining his short hair with her eyes and hands.

_It had curled a bit,_ Kate eventually noticed. She giggled and brought her lips to meet his again like nothing had just happened. But Jack seemed to be totally out of what she was doing.

He broke the kiss and looked at her with a puzzled frown.

"What am I? Your boy toy that you can examine when ever you feel like it?" he finally smiled.

"Boy toy sounds good to me," she smiled back.

This was exactly what she had missed about him – the ability to make the hard and usually difficult situations feel lighter.

Her expression went from amused to serious fast. He was confused why she was having these mood swings but he didn't mention it. He only tilted his head forward so his face would be close to hers again and eventually they were panting slowly but heavily against each other's mouths.

As she kissed him, Kate was faced with the height difference issues once more but this time she wanted to have him properly and decided to take care of the problem.

She withdrew her face back just so she could voice out understandable words.

"Lift me up. We need to level the playing field," Kate whispered against his lips.

Jack pressed his lips harder against hers but didn't really move them. He was concentrating more on what his arms were about to do.

His palms slid lower on her body until they reached the backs of her both thighs. She stiffened more as he started adding more pressure to her legs and finally raised her off the ground with his arms.

Jack was thinking about walking the stairs up to his bedroom but knew in the back of his mind that they were not going to make it there. Instead he headed towards the living room.

Some rational thoughts tried to push thru Kate's mind but she just pushed them right back where they had come from. _Not tonight. I need him now._ She did remember that he was still married and as she thought about it she felt a pinch in her stomach but after a while that was forgotten too. All her focus was now targeted to his neck and its skin.

Eventually he reached the living room couch and Kate was hanging onto him like a little baby monkey – palms entwined behind his neck and legs wrapped around his waist. With a silent thud he seated himself and Kate on the sofa but she was too busy working on his neck to pay much attention to the fact that he was no longer walking.

The hickies that Jack had made to her neck area earlier were now completely faded away. _Guess that's what happens after a month if you don't have nobody to maintain their existence_.

But this time Kate wanted to mark him. She moved her mouth to the right side of his neck and kissed a little area there before she started sucking it slightly. He tilted his head to left and closed his eyes, yanking her body closer to his chest with his palms.

After she was done, Kate withdrew her face further so she could see the mark that her lips and teeth had planted to his skin. It was her first and to her eyes it looked pretty good for a first hickie.

Kate tossed her hair back tilting her head but there were still many loose curls left hanging on her face. She tried to blow them away but was unsuccessful.

Jack raised his hands to stroke them away and tucked the locks of hair behind her ear.

She brought her eyes to his and Jack saw a flash of fear pass thru them but when he tried to look closer what the flash had been about, it was already faded away from her eyes.

He moved his hands lower on her figure that was sitting on his lap. He lifted her top away slowly as she raised her hands up. After placing it next to them on the couch he started to work on his own shirt. Kate was too distracted to do that herself as she was now caressing his hair in full examination mode.

He finished undressing his shirt and tossed it away. Finally Kate noticed what he had done while her mind had been elsewhere and shifted her gaze first to his chest and then brought it back to his eyes. He started kissing her and supported her back gently with his hand as she began to lean against the couch.

A pillow on the couch got flattened between Kate's shoulder and the couch. Her nails dug into his back and she tossed her head when she felt every muscle in her body starting to shiver.

A little moment later he was lying on his back, Kate squashed against his side and she was making tiny circles on his chest with her fingers. Eventually she raised her gaze to his face.

"What are we doing, Jack?" she asked still letting her fingers linger on his chest.

He didn't answer to her and just let his head rest on the cushion not even bringing his eyes to her eyes sight. After a long spell he opened his mouth slightly as in attempt to say something but then closed it again.

Kate stopped her fingers and yanked herself up so he was forced to look at her. Her eyes demanded him to say at least something.

He noticed this and swallowed.

"I have no idea," he said and moved himself to an upright position, looking at her to the eyes. "All I know is that I need you."

Kate frowned at him.

"I need you too. That month apart was hard enough. Sarah or no Sarah, I can't do that again," she whispered serious expression on her face and grabbed his hand to hers entwining their fingers.

"Well she is away often travelling."

"I guess that just makes me the other woman," she said a bit sadly but still somehow she seemed happy.

Jack couldn't come up with anything witty to say back to her line and just let his eyes fall to the floor. She saw that he was ashamed of the whole situation. Kate raised her free hand to rest on his cheek in attempt to console him.

He smiled to her.

"You still want those crackers?" she asked.

"Sure," she said as they walked to the kitchen.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen.**

The crackers had been too salty and way too dry. Jack had only eaten one cracker when he said that he had had enough of them. Kate had raised her eyebrow to him, frowning him with the corner of her eye amused. She found the dry snack surprisingly good and couldn't understand why he was being so picky. She had been able to eat two more crackers until he had wanted to do other things with her.

He had taken her by the hand and walked the stairs up to his bedroom with her. They had spent the rest of the night there and when the morning sun had risen, she woke up next to him, they shared breakfast, he kissed her and she had left his apartment.

All this took a place a month ago. During that month Kate had met with him three times.

When Jack and Kate got together they always followed pretty much the same pattern. First they would meet in the coffee shop, eat something and talk. Annie was almost always behind the counter when they were there. She gave loving frowns to them that Kate usually didn't even notice but if he saw her, he gave her a little nod with his head to which she answered back by smiling.

After that they would go either to his place or to the nearby motel depending on whether was Sarah home or not. From those rendezvous that they had shared, Sarah had only been home once.

"I told you she's not home that much," he said on their fourth time together after the dry cracker night.

Kate didn't like to talk about Sarah and most of the time he tried to avoid that topic also but occasionally he brought it up like he was doing now.

She shifted her eyes to the cupcake to make him stop talking. At first she hadn't wanted to eat anything but when he insisted that it would be his pleasure to buy something for her, she had agreed.

She started nipping it with her fork but when eventually she took a bite from it and was surprised by how good it was. Kate closed her eyes and let the chocolate chips from the muffin melt into her mouth. He saw her enjoying look and smiled. Opening her eyes, she found him glancing at her.

"This is so good! How did you know to pick this one?" she asked looking at him.

"I've been here probably hundred times more than you have. Lets just say that I've had more than enough time to test-drive all their offerings."

Kate's lips curled up and she ended up staring his face a moment longer that it would've been necessary. Eventually she moved her gaze to the cupcake. Chocolate chip banana. He sure had hit the gold mine when he had bought that kind of one to her.

"Do you want to share this? I feel bad just enjoying this by myself," she said frowning at him again.

He hadn't expected that someone actually considered sharing that kind of piece of heaven. The coffee in that place might've sucked and tasted like the ink from yesterday's newspaper had been in it but their bakery products were undoubtedly New York's finest cream.

"Sure, I would love to have some of that," he said gesturing to the plate with his head.

Kate took a better grip from her fork so she would be able to slice the cupcake into two different pieces with it. Jack stopped her hand by grabbing her by the wrist when he saw that she was going to slice half of it to him.

"I don't need that much. Just a little bite of it will do just fine. I bought it for you so you could eat it. I've had way too many of these anyway."

She nodded cutting a small piece from the cupcake and bringing the fork towards him. He was holding his mouth open like a little baby. She giggled and placed the fork to his lips. He took the piece of muffin from it, chewed and swallowed. It tasted just like it always had tasted. But the company was definitely better compared to whom or actually what he usually shared his muffin with. The choice between car magazines that were at least three months old and a brown-haired puppy-eyed girl wasn't exactly the trickiest thing to make.

Jack watched how she continued eating and when she was done how she put the fork carefully on the plate and drained the rest of her coffee.

"What have you planned for this time?" she asked.

Kate knew that Sarah wasn't home at the moment and was expecting that they would go to his place but when Jack didn't answer her question right away she started suspecting that he could've had planned to do something different.

"I thought that we could maybe go to the Central Park and spent time there. It would be nice to just be close to you without actually having to do anything. What do you say?" he eventually spoke out.

Kate hadn't done something like just hanging around since she had been a child so she was getting excited about his idea. Then a thought came to her mind.

"What if somebody sees us?" she asked worryingly.

He brought his left palm up to his hair combing it thru once with his fingers, then looking at her eyes comfortingly.

"This is NY, Kate. Pretty many people will see us. Even at this very moment quite many could just turn their heads and look us. But to repeat myself, this is NY. People don't care who they have seen. So I don't think we have to worry about that," he said still frowning at her face.

Kate's expression softened and she stood up from her chair. As she started walking towards the door Jack sneaked behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned her back against his chest but continued her pacing.

They looked stupid walking together like that and she knew it but didn't let it bother her.

The exit door squeaked and when they were outside Jack withdrew himself slightly away from her so he could wave his hand to get a cab for them.

"Do we really need a cab to get there? It's just a few blocks away from where we are. We could walk," she said turning her head around so she could look at him.

"I was thinking that you might not have the energy to walk but if you do, the walking suits me fine."

It took a half an hour for them to arrive to the park.

"Lets go there," he said pointing the spot on the grass under a big oak tree with his finger. "It should be distant enough to avoid people's stares."

The place was nice, just perfectly away from everybody. She smiled and took the hand that he was thrusting into her direction into her own palm.

As they reached the place, Jack took a blanket out from his bag, spread it on the grass and sat down. He patted the free spot next to him and Kate joined him.

He had realised to take the blanket with him but the thought of bringing some food hadn't crossed his mind and now he regretted it. Though she seemed to be happy with this. She had one of those looks in her eyes that little kids get when they see the gate to an amusement park.

She turned to face him and smiled.

"I'm sorry that I didn't bring anything else," he said and leaned his back against the tree.

"It's OK. I kind of like it this way."

This was the first time anyone had wanted to just be with her with no strings attached. Every time somebody had done something nice to her, they had expected to get something in return.

She dragged her body closer to him and after he had readjusted his position, she was able to sit next to him and rest her back against him. She felt his chest go up and down in the same pace that he exhaled and inhaled beneath her. After a while he brought his arms to go around her upper body and squeezing them tighter against her making her body relax and come closer to him.

He closed his eyes and relaxed his body taking in the essence of her being so close to him.

Kate caressed his hands that were resting on her tummy with her palms and looked around her.

The park was rather empty from people and rough-looking. It was a very hot day and because there hadn't been any rains in a while, the grass and the leaves had started to turn a bit brownish and yellowish from all the dryness. _The glamour of NY,_ she thought sarcastically. But even if the nature wasn't wearing its most gorgeous summer outfits, the park managed to look beautiful in the setting evening sun. Or at least the purple sky was pleasant to the eye.

"Jack…" she murmured.

He was startled by her voice and making a few tired groans he opened his eyes.

She turned her face so he could see one side of it. Her eyes were fixed to the grass.

"What are we going to do? I mean how long can we keep this thing as a secret to Sarah?"

Jack closed his eyes again. He didn't like to talk nor think about Sarah when he was with her but her knew that this conversation was inevitable. 

Tightening his grip to her he finally talked.

"I have been thinking about that a lot lately," he started and tried to swallow the lump that had formed into his throat. "I've put little facts together. The thing is that I'm not happy with her. She has never been there when I would've needed her. But since you came back into my life, there hasn't been a need for her inside of me."

She had turned her whole body around and was now completely face-to-face with him.

"What are you saying?" she asked quietly and Jack saw her eyes starting to glister a bit.

He cupped her face between his palms, making her look into his eyes.

"I just need to know that you will be there for me if I do leave her," he said to her ear.

She couldn't believe his words. They made her heart feel like it was expanding inside of her. Kate rested her palms to his chest and brought her face close to him.

"I promise, I will be there," she whispered and started kissing him.

He smiled against her lips. When he tasted something salty, Jack knew that the moisture in her eyes had formed into a tear.

He walked her home. She lived quite near the Central Park so the escort wasn't very long but he enjoyed it anyway.

Her apartment was in a rather cramped block of flats. She had explained that it was kind of crappy but pretty much the only place in NY where the landlord didn't ask many questions from the tenants.

They were standing in front of the entrance door and he was staring at her.

"So I…" she started but Jack interrupted her by bringing his mouth to her lips and pushing her against the wall gently.

She raised her hands to stroke his neck as he parted her lips with his tongue. Kate deepened the kiss by opening her mouth wider and leaned more against the wall.

Eventually he broke the kiss by pulling his face back slightly.

"Well, I couldn't see that one coming," she giggled and caressed his cheek with her nose and was breathing warm air against his face.

"I've just been wanting to do that all evening. Had to get it out of my system before you went in."

She raised her eyes to glare at him as she smiled.

"So I guess I'll see you next Friday?"

"You got yourself a date, girl," he answered. 

"For the last time, I'm not your girl," she laughed. 

"You can say that all you want but we both know how it really is," he said and gave her a brief kiss as they said good nights to one another.

Jack started walking away but after pacing a while, he turned to look back. She was still standing there by the door and waved to him when she saw him looking back.

After giving a wave back to her, he continued walking and closed his eyes. _It would've been so cool if I hadn't looked back_, he thought and disappeared from her sight.


End file.
